1951 had not been a good year for Douglas MacArthur: after almost losing a war
in Korea it seemed he had already won, he was dismissed by President Truman,
making headlines around the world. But for thirty-seven minutes on April 19,
he held America in the palm of his hand. MacArthur's address before a joint
session of Congress, one of the great moments in the early days of television,
offered him a unique opportunity to tell his side of the story. He did not
disappoint.

Critics and much of the public soon saw through the holes in his arguments.
But his final words, drawing the curtain on an unparalleled military career,
surely rank as one of the great exit lines in American history.

General MacArthur's Address to Congress
April 19, 1951

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker and Distinguished Members of the Congress:

I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and pride -- humility in
the weight of those great architects of our history who have stood here before
me, pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represent
human liberty in the purest form yet devised.

Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human
race.

I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for the issues are
fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of partisan considerations. They
must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest if our course is to
prove sound and our future protected.

I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of receiving that which I
have to say as solely expressing the considered viewpoint of a fellow
American.

I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of
life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve my country.

The issues are global, and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one
sector oblivious to those of another is to court disaster for the whole. While
Asia is commonly referred to as the Gateway to Europe, it is no less true that
Europe is the Gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail
to have its impact upon the other. There are those who claim our strength is
inadequate to protect on both fronts, that we cannot divide our effort. I can
think of no greater expression of defeatism.

If a potential enemy can divide his strength on two fronts, it is for us to
counter his effort. The Communist threat is a global one.

Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction of every other
sector. You can not appease or otherwise surrender to communism in Asia without
simultaneously undermining our efforts to halt its advance in Europe.

Beyond pointing out these general truisms, I shall confine my discussion to the
general areas of Asia. Before one may objectively assess the situation now
existing there, he must comprehend something of Asia's past and the
revolutionary changes which have marked her course up to, the present. Long
exploited by the so-called colonial powers, with little opportunity to achieve
any degree of social justice, individual dignity or a higher standard life such
as guided our own noble administration in the Philippines, the people of Asia
found their opportunity in the war just past to throw off the shackles of
colonialism and now see the dawn of new opportunity and heretofore unfelt
dignity, and the self-respect of political freedom.

Mustering half of the earth's population, and 60 percent of its natural
resources these peoples are rapidly consolidating a new force, both moral and
material, with which to raise the living standard and erect adaptations of the
design of modern progress to their own distinct cultural environments.

Whether one adheres to the concept of colonialization or not, this is the
direction of Asian progress and it may not be stopped. It is a corollary to the
shift of the world economic frontiers as the whole epicenter of world affairs
rotates back toward the area whence it started.

In this situation, it becomes vital that our own country orient its policies in
consonance with this basic evolutionary condition rather than pursue a course
blind to reality that the colonial era is now past and the Asian peoples covet
the right to shape their own free destiny. What they seek now is friendly
guidance, understanding and support, not imperious direction, the dignity of
equality and not the shame of subjugation.

Their pre-war standard of life, pitifully low, is infinitely lower now in the
devastation left in war's wake. World ideologies play little part in Asian
thinking and are little understood.

What the peoples strive for is the opportunity for a little more food in their
stomachs, a little better clothing on their backs and a little firmer roof over
their heads, and the realization of the normal nationalist urge for political
freedom.

These political-social conditions have but an indirect bearing upon our own
national security, but do form a backdrop to contemporary planning which must
be thoughtfully considered if we are to avoid the pitfalls of unrealism.

Of more direct and immediately bearing upon our national security are the
changes wrought in the strategic potential of the Pacific Ocean in the course
of the past war.

Prior thereto the western strategic frontier of the United States lay on the
literal line of the Americas, with an exposed island salient extending out
through Hawaii, Midway and Guam to the Philippines. That salient proved not an
outpost of strength but an avenue of weakness along which the enemy could and
did attack. The Pacific was a potential area of, advance for any predatory
force intent upon striking at the bordering land areas.

All this was changed by our Pacific victory, our strategic frontier then
shifted to embrace the entire Pacific Ocean, which became a vast moat to
protect us as long as we hold it. Indeed, it acts as a protective shield for
all of the Americas and all free lands of the Pacific Ocean area, We control it
to the shores of Asia by a chain of islands extending in an arc from the
Aleutians to the Mariannas held by us and our free allies.

From this island chain we can dominate with sea and air power every Asiatic
port from Vladivostok to Singapore -- with sea and air power every port, as I
said, from Vladivostok to Singapore -- and prevent any hostile movement into
the Pacific.

Any predatory attack from Asia must be an amphibious effort. No amphibious
force can be successful without control of the sea lanes and the air over those
lanes in its avenue of advance. With naval and air supremacy and modest ground
elements to defend bases, any maj . or attack from continental Asia toward us
or our friends in the Pacific would be doomed to failure.

Under such conditions, the Pacific no longer represents menacing avenues of
approach for a prospective invader. It assumes, instead, the friendly aspect of
a peaceful lake.

Our line of defense is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of
military effort and expenses. It envisions no attack against anyone, nor does
it provide the bastions essential for offensive operations, but properly
maintained, would be an invincible defense against aggression.

The holding of this defense line in the western Pacific is entirely dependent
upon holding all segments thereof, for any major breach of that line by an
unfriendly power would render vulnerable to determine attack every other major
segment. This is a military estimate as to which I have yet to find a military
leader who will take exception.

For that reason, I have strongly recommended in the past. as a matter of
military urgency, that under no circumstances must Formosa fall under Communist
control. Such an eventuality would at once threaten the freedom of the
Philippines and the loss of Japan and might well force our western frontier
back to the coast of California Oregon and Washington.

To understand the changes which now appear upon the Chinese mainland, one must
understand the changes in Chinese character and culture over the past 50 years.
China up to 50 years ago was completely non-homogenous, being compartmented
into groups divided against each other. The war-making tendency was almost
non-existent as they still followed the tenets of the Confucian ideal of
pacifist culture.

At the turn of the century under the regime of Chang Tso Lin efforts toward
greater homogenity produced the start of a nationalist urge. This was further
and more successfully developed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek, but
has been brought to its greatest fruition under the present regime to the point
that it has now taken on the character of a united nationalism of increasingly
dominant aggressive tendencies.

Through these past 50 years the Chinese people have thus become militarize in
their concepts and in their ideals. They now constitute excellent soldiers,
with competent staffs, and commanders. This has produced a new and dominant
power in Asia, which, for its own purposes, is allied with Soviet Russia but
which in its own concepts and methods has become aggressively imperialistic,
with a lust for expansions and increased power normal to this type of
imperialism.

There is little of the ideological concept either one way or another in the
Chinese make-up. The standard of living is so low and the capital accumulation
has been so thoroughly dissipated by war that the masses are desperate and
eager to follow any leadership which seems to promise the alleviation of woeful
stringencies.

I have from the beginning believed that the Chinese Communists' support of the
North Koreans was the dominant one. Their interests are at present parallel
with those of the Soviet, but I believe that the aggressiveness recently
displayed not only in Korea but also in Indo-China arid Tibet and pointing
potentially toward the South reflects predominantly the same lust for the
expansion of power which has animated every would-be conqueror since the
beginning of time.

The Japanese people since the war have undergone the greatest reformation
recorded in modern history, With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and
marked capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in war's wake
erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty
and personal dignity and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly
representative government committed to the advance of political morality,
freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice.

Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free
nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust. That it may
be counted upon to wield a profoundly beneficial influence over the course of
events in Asia is attested by the magnificent manner in which the Japanese
people have met the recent challenge of war, unrest and confusion surrounding
them from the outside and checked communism within their own frontiers without
the slightest slackening in their forward progress.

I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront, without
the slightest qualms as to the effect of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan.
The results fully justified my faith.

I know of no nation more serene, orderly and industrious, nor in which higher
hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the
human race.

Of our former ward, the Philippines, we can look forward in confidence that the
existing unrest will be corrected and a strong and healthy nation will grow in
the longer aftermath of war's terrible destructiveness We must be patient and
understanding and never fail them. As in our hour of need, they did not fail
us.

A Christian nation, the Philippines stand as a mighty bulwark of Christianity
in the Far East, and its capacity for high moral leadership in Asia is
unlimited.

On Formosa the government of the Republic of China has had the opportunity to
refute by action much of the malicious gossip which so undermined the strength
of its leadership on the Chinese mainland. The Formosan people are receiving a
just and enlightened administration with majority representation in the organs
of government, and politically, economically and socially they appear to be
advancing along sound and constructive lines,

With this brief insight into the surrounding area, I now turn to the Korean
conflict.

While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in
support of the Republic of Korea, that decision from a military standpoint,
proved a sound one. As I said, it proved to be a sound one, as we hurled back
the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our
objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior
ground forces.

This created a new war and an entirely new situation, a situation not
contemplated when our forces were committed against the North Korean invaders;
a situation which called for new decisions in the diplomatic sphere to permit
the realistic adjustment of ail litary strategy. Such decisions have not been
forthcoming.

While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into
continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did
urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim
was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old one.

Apart from the military need, as I saw It, to neutralize sanctuary protection
given the enemy north of the Yalu, I felt that military necessity in the
conduct of the war made necessary
the intesification of our economic blockade against China,
the imposition of a naval blockade against the China coast,
removal of restrictions on air reconnaissance of China's coastal area and of
Manchuria,
removal of restrictions on the forces of the Republic of China on Formosa, with
logistical support to contribution to-their effective operations against the
Chinese mainland.

For entertaining these views, all professionally designed to support our forces
in Korea and to bring hostilities to an end with the least possible delay and
at a saving of countless American arid allied lives, I have been severely
criticized in lay circles, principally abroad, despite my understanding that
from a military standpoint the above views have been fully shared in the past
by practically every military leader concerned with the Korean campaign,
including our own Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I called for reinforcements, but was informed that reinforcements were riot
available. I made clear that if not permitted to destroy the enemy built-up
bases north of the Yalu, if not permitted to utilize the friendly Chinese Force
of some 600,000 men on Formosa, if not permitted to blockade the China coast to
prevent the Chinese Reds from getting succor from without, and if there was to
be no hope of major reinforcements, the position of the command from the
military standpoint forbade victory.

We could hold in Korea by constant maneuver and in an approximate area where
our supply line advantages were in balance with the supply line disadvantages
of the enemy, but we could hope at best for only an indecisive campaign with
its terrible and constant attrition upon our forces if the enemy utilized its
full military potential.

I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a
solution.

Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said in effect that
I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I know war as f ew other men now living know it, and nothing to me--and nothing
to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its
very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means
of settling international disputes.

Indeed, the Second Day of September, 1945, just following the surrender of the
Japanese nation on the Battleship Missouri, I formally cautioned as follows:

"Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the
ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or
settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were
found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an
instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful.
Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed,
leaving the only path to be 'by way of the crucible of war. The utter
destructiveness of war now blocks out, this alternative. We have had our last
chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system,
Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and
involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will
synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and
all the material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be
of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. "

But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply
every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory,
not prolonged indecision.

In war there can be no substitute for victory.

There are some who for varying reasons would appease Red China. They are blind
to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that
appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars. It points to no single instance
where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than
a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively
greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other
alternative. Why, my soldiers asked me, surrender military advantages to an
enemy in the field? I could not answer.

Some, may say to avoid spread of the conflict into an all-out war with China,
Others, to avoid Soviet intervention. Neither explanation seems valid, for
China is already engaging with the maximum power It can commit, and the Soviet
will not necessarily mesh its actions with our moves. Like a cobra, any new
enemy, will more likely strike whenever it feels that the relativity of
military and other potentialities is in its favor on a world-wide basis.

The tragedy of Korea is further heightened by the fact that its military action
was confined to its territorial limits. It condemns that nation, which it Is
our purpose to save, to suffer the devastating impact of full naval and air
bombardment while the enemy's sanctuaries are fully protected from such attack
and devastation.

Of the nations of the world, Korea alone, up to now, is the sole one which has
risked its all against communism. The magnificence of the courage and fortitude
of the Korean people defies description. They have chosen to risk death rather
than slavery. Their last words to me were: "Don't scuttle the Pacific.î

I have just left your fighting sons in Korea. They have done their bust there,
and I can report to you without reservation that they are splendid in every
way.

It was my constant effort to preserve them and end this savage conflict
honorably and with the least loss of time and a minimum sacrif ice of life. Its
growing bloodshed has caused me the deepest anguish and anxiety. Those gallant
men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.

I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even
before the turn of the century, it was the fullfillment of all of my boyish
hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath
at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have all since vanished, but I still
remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day
which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and
just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the
light to see that duty.